The do gooders have been in an uproar this week about the execution Thursday of Teresa Lewis, who was sentenced to die by lethal injection for orchestrating the 2002 murders of her husband and stepson to get a $250,000 insurance payout.

Death penalty opponents claimed that the State of Virginia ignored Lewis’ supposed diminished mental capacity, and that she had become a born again Christian while in prison. And the biggest objection was that she was a woman.

So what? Does being a woman put someone on such a pedestal that they are immune from the same punishment that men would get for a crime? Isn’t that just what the women’s movement was all about – equality? If there should be equal pay for equal work, shouldn’t there also be equal punishment for the same crimes? I think so.

In fact, Teresa Lewis used being a woman as a tool to get two men to kill her victims, trading sex with co-conspirators Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller as part payment for being the triggermen in her scheme. She even allowed Fuller to have sex with her then 16 year old daughter as added incentive! How sick it that?

As for her supposed mental deficiencies, she was smart enough to arrange the murders, she was smart enough to buy the shotguns that Shallenberger and Fuller used to commit the murders, and she was smart enough to unlock the door to her mobile home to allow them entry, and to lock away the family pit bull, before the crime.

And let’s not even get into her deep love of God. I can’t count the number of felons who are screaming threats and fighting all the way when the handcuffs get slapped on, but who suddenly find Jesus before their first court appearance! I think we should convert all of the the churches in the country into prisons; that’s where God seems to work fastest!

Teresa Lewis didn’t exactly lead an exemplary life before the murders of her husband and stepson either. She abandoned her children, and spoke openly of her drug use, thefts she committed, numerous sexual affairs and one night stands, even while she was married and professed to be a church going woman. She even had an affair with her sister’s husband.

In short, hers was a life out of control. And now, a life that some think should have been spared because she was a woman. I’m sorry, but I disagree. Her victims, Julian and Charles Lewis, are just as dead as they would be if a man had set up their murders. I think she deserved the sentence she got.

12 Comments on Being A Woman Shouldn’t Matter

Yep, equal pay for equal work sounds good, but even though we’re “making progress” it’s not yet a fact. Women generally make about 20% less than men do when performing the same job with equal or better skill. Trust me on this one. I’ve spent a lifetime learning it firsthand. That being said, Teresa Lewis got exactly what she deserved. Her being a woman did not and should not have had a thing to do with it. Like we say in law enforcement: If you do the crime, be prepared to do the time….or needle. But, you get my point, I’m sure. Pun intended.

We agree completely with you Nick. This women deserve just what she was dealt to die. She may be all the things she says she is but that is a crock. She is playing the gender game and I hope she looses.

What bothers me the most about this has nothing to do with the fact that a woman was executed last night for a crime committed in 2002. I support the death penalty for the most horrific criminals. That is the surest way to guarantee that they will never torture or kill anyone else.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that it is wrong to execute mentally retarded prisoners. However, the court left it up to the states to decide their own standards. Virginia ruled that this woman didn’t qualify for consideration.

I disagree with the Commonwealth of Virginia.

For years, I mentored a state school resident with an I.Q. of 70. This woman just executed, whose I.Q. tested as low as 70, reminds me of the young woman I mentored. I believe it is wrong to IGNORE the fact that while Teresa Lewis was apparently mentally retarded, she was still held to the same standards as a woman of “normal” intelligence.

One of the two actual shooters admitted in 2003 that he began an affair with her, specifically because he could manipulate her to fall in love with him and later give him any insurance money. For whatever reason, her trial lawyers didn’t bring this up during sentencing. And the other shooter quickly cut a deal with prosecutors in return for a life sentence.

Of course, Teresa Lewis deserved punishment for being an accomplice to these crimes, but when the actual killers themselves were not executed, I do not believe she should have been executed. I just don’t.

Next stop, death row for MANY years. That’s also part of the problem. We, the tax payers, have to pay for the upkeep of this criminal practically forever.

And yes, the two men should also have been given the death penalty. They are as guilty as Teresa Lewis.

Personally I think all criminals are “NOT normal.” Normal people don’t steal, do illegal drugs, do murder,etc. Abnormal (mental problems) people do those crimes. But if we, society, allow them freedom they will continue to do the crimes over and over again. Society (us) has a responsibility to protect our citizens from these abnormal people. So far the only way to deal with them we have discovered is to keep them apart (prison) from normal society. And yes, the death penalty has been shown to not be a deterrent to these kinds of people. But the death of the criminal will certainly stop that particular criminal from being a repeat offender!!!!!

Maybe someday we can reprogram their minds, but for now prison and the death penalty for heinous crimes seems to be the only answer.

I understand your opinion, but I just cannot condone the death penalty on a personal basis. In my mind, all the death penalty does is to continue the cycle of violence, this time in the name of the state. But I also do not see how anything is gained by paying to support these kinds of people in prison forever and I know thay cannot be allowed to be free to commit the same crimes again. I don’t have the answers and I don’t know if anyone does.

As far as “finding God,” if that were really true she would not object much to the Commonwealth arranging a meeting for her.

For true believers, look at the three Hebrews who were to be thrown into the furnace in Daniel 3:14-18. Look at the Christian example of St Stephen in Acts 7:52-60. Or look at all the Muslim suicide bombers anxious to make arrangements on their own.

I know it is easy to write off jailhouse conversions, but at least a few of them are genuine, and not opportunistic. About 35 years ago, I met a former biker gang leader and attempted murderer who found God before his trial. He accepted his sentence, attended services whenever he could, and once he made parole he went straight to Bible School to become a pastor. He was convinced God had kept him from becoming an actual murderer by having his pistol fail to fire when he pulled the trigger several times at point blank range.

I would agree, however, that there are enough phonies out there that judges should not give much weight to these stories when handing down appropriate sentences.